How Twitter Can Help You Find a Job

Twitter is a great tool for building your personal brand and developing key relationships at target companies. The instant online communication of the real-time web is changing public relations and marketing on a global scale.

When Twitter first became popular, the instructions for posting a tweet were simply to answer the question, “What are you doing?” Some people took this question literally, leading to such gems as “I’m taking a shower” or “I’m having coffee with breakfast.”

Fortunately, Twitter has since evolved from simple personal status updates into a place where people promote ideas, develop relationships, and break news as it happens in real time.

As you can probably guess, the implications of the real-time web for a job seeker are enormous because when jobs are posted, you find out instantly.

How recruiters use Twitter

Hiring agents, internal HR staffers, headhunters, large human resource firms, and private recruiting professionals all use Twitter to actively fill open positions. Why? Because posting job openings on Twitter is not only free but also effective as a way to advertise positions to a small, yet highly qualified, pool of trusted professionals.

At least one major recruiter in your city is posting jobs daily to a Twitter feed. These recruiters hope to collect qualified résumés without having to spend $600 to post the opening on a major job board. Remember, recruiters get paid a fee if their candidate is chosen by the hiring company.

When a recruiter posts a job, he usually uses a hashtag to indicate that the tweet is about a job posting, for example, #job, #career, or #hiring, followed by a short description and a link to the position’s online page. The link typically takes you to the job posting on the recruiter’s website, where you can apply directly.

The use of Twitter for more than simply announcing jobs isn’t common practice; however, some creative companies ask candidates to apply for a job using Twitter directly. Applying for a job in just 140 characters is a lot harder than you think!

How to tweet as a job seeker

As a job seeker, you can use Twitter to find work in essentially two ways. First, Twitter allows you to create instant relationships within target organizations. Second, you can monitor job opportunities posted on your Twitter timeline like a real-time job board.

• The Relationship Engine: When you use Twitter to create, build, or strengthen relationships, you combine brand awareness and sales. Through your daily interactions, you raise awareness about who you are and the value you bring to the table. When you target specific people to engage with and try to bring those conversations to e-mail or phone, you use sales skills to sell your abilities to an organization.

  
  



• The Real-Time Job Board: Every day, thousands of jobs are posted on Twitter, often long before they wind up on more traditional job boards. With the proper setup, your Twitter account delivers job opportunities to you as they become available in real-time.

  
  

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